A fishy time

So...in true Sarah and Laurent style, we're rather behind on the updates! But we've been having so much fun that it's rather difficult to find time to blog, even when we do actually have internet access.

It feels rather longer than 3 1/2 weeks that we've been travelling, probably because we have a very established routine each day as a result of our free-camping. We can't change the routine, because then we can't fit all the gear into our car! But we have been complimented several times on how neat and organised our vehicle is (what a change from my usual messy mode of living, hey mum?). And we're definately doing well on our Geriatric Training Mission. So far the following characteristics have been acquired:

• Bedtime is 8:30pm. Anything after that is extremely late;
  
• Socks and sandals are appropriate camp footwear, as are mosquito nets;
  
• Laurent is seriously considering subscribing to "The Senior" newspaper. He says it's so he can attend their movie nights, but I'm not sure if I believe him;
  
• We do not leave the vehicle without my fancy new toy, my dSLR camera, Laurent's fashionable bumbag and our floppy, broad-brimmed hats (but
  
  The sands of time
  The Pinnacles desert at Cervantes
  we haven't been sunburnt once yet, so we're quite impressed with ourselves!);
  
• Similarly, any hike needs my knee brace, my hiking poles, the binoculars and my bird book.
  

So we finally left Perth on May 10 after several delays to our departure (but that meant several farewell dinners, so it wasn't all bad!), and have certainly taken our time - it took us 5 days to reach Geraldton! Mum nearly sent out a search party. We saw the history of New Norcia (and Laurent learnt about some of the PC music camp history associated with it!) and wandered the Pinnacles desert at sunset, saw the Lake Thetis stromatolites (Laurent was more interested in watching the DEC contractors construct a boardwalk by the lake than in the actual stromatolites) and hiked up Mt Leseuer. Mt Leseuer has some of the highest diversity of flora, herpetofauna and avian fauna in the world - 60% of the plants are a different species to those located on Mt Michaud, only 1.5km away! I couldn't get over the diversity - at one point, we saw 2 older women decked out in full hiking gear, and Laurent took one look at them and said to me "Those ladies are nerds. Don't ever become like them!". His warning came a bit late, however, as at the time I was desperately flicking through a plant book trying to identify a species that I'd been frantically photographing moments before. The hike was fairly easy (even with my still-dodgy knee, I could make it up and down without a problem), as the "Mount" is more of a hill, but one warning - ALWAYS check for ticks BEFORE getting in your car! It took us a good 4 days to get rid of all the tiny (pinhead-sized) ticks that had managed to attach themselves to us during our 2-hour walk. After Leseuer, we checked out Mingenew (we saw your beautifully-carved sign, Brian!), as well as Coalseam Conservation Park where we saw the first coal to be discovered in WA and "Indiana Nikolaiczuk" excavated the species "Laurent Animal 1" and "Laurent Animal 2". They turned out to be corals.

We spent a lovely few days with Maureen and Malcolm in Geraldton, who were both incredibly welcoming, accommodating and helpful! Geraldton was a bit of a cultural change from all the 'out-doorsy' things we'd been doing up to then - we saw some interesting Aussie art at the Geraldton Art Gallery, the serene HMAS Sydney II Memorial, passed some time at the funky little "Go Health" lunchbar, and spent hours at the Geraldton branch of the WA Museum (great displays on local history and the local shipwrecks, in particular the Batavia, Zuytdorp and Zeewijk - fascinating, if gruesome at times). But I think Laurent was still the most impressed by the iceworks on Marine Terrace - apparently they're the largest in the southern hemisphere - and we were also given a great tour of the Geraldton meteorological station by Brendon, who was more than happy to show us around - apparently it's a pretty lonely job.

Next stop was the Hutt River Province. Prince Leonard himself showed us around in his daggy tracksuit and thongs - but unfortunately he spoke so fast and his speech was so over-rehearsed that we could barely understand anything he said. He's quite the character though, as I suppose he must be to have established his own principality independent of Australia - we did wonder, however, whether he's really achieved his life dream in doing so, as the property looked just like any other run-down station despite the signs for the Government Offices, Post Office, museum, royal chapel and souvenir shop.

We're numbered among the few people to have visited Kalbarri and to not have seen Nature's Window, Z-Bend, Red Bluff Lookout, Pot Alley Gorge or the pelican feeding. We did try with the pelicans, but they didn't seem to appreciate our special efforts of getting up early to see them, so the seagulls got all the fish that day. We spent most of our time on the coastal cliffs, following the lobster pots down the Bigurda Trail from Grandstand to Natural Bridge - despite the heat and dive-bombing nesting swallows, it was beautiful. It's a shame that no one else really seems to venture past the vehicle-access viewing points - even when it's only 100m of signposted track to see a far better view of Island Rock than is afforded by the paved viewing platform.

Most of the past few weeks, however, has been spent in Shark Bay. On a tip from one of Laurent's Rotto work mates, we volunteered for a week at the Ocean Park aquarium just south of Denham - it turned out to be the best decision we could have made! The work we were doing wasn't too exciting (construction work initially, then mostly cleaning algae off rocks and tanks!), but we got free accommodation and food for a week, as well as the chance to learn about the marine life of Shark Bay. I'm now terrified to walk in the water in case I step on a stonefish - although to balance that I'm far less scared of sea snakes than I was before watching Duncan hold several in his hands. Ed and all his staff at the Park were fantastic - really knowledgeable, passionate, cheerful and easy-going. While we were in the area, we also checked out Francois Peron National Park - we couldn't believe that there wasn't a huge queue for the hot tubs! The homestead is definately worth a visit, both to bathe in the 44C water, and for the fascinating Homestead Walk. Unfortunately the north section of the Park was closed due to a 50-year flood event (Shark Bay has received 150% of its average annual rainfall in the past 3 months!), so we didn't get to see the good snorkelling areas up there. The rain has also resulted in a proliferation of mosquitos - I had more than 50 bites on my legs at one point.

Monkey Mia, of course, was also on the list. We were disappointed with the dolphin feeding (although I did get to feed 'Nicky'!), as we couldn't hear anything the ranger said about them. We got a trip, however, on the Aristocat 2, which was fantastic - I was jumping with excitement when we saw DUGONGS! The trip also stopped at the Blue Lagoon Pearl Farm, where "English Pete" gave us a swift rundown on how pearls are made. If you've ever wondered why pearls are so expensive, it's because it takes 7 years to get the first saleable crop from the oysters, and 13 years to get top quality pearls. While I was drooling over the stunning 'Sea Opal' (opals grown on pearl shell like half-pearls - Blue Lagoon are the only farm in the world to do this) jewelry, Laurent was chatting to Jamie and discovered that Blue Lagoon also take volunteers to help on the farm.

So guess what we did for the next 2 days? For us, at least, pearl farming consisted mostly of killing innumerable sea squirts, soft corals and assorted bivalves to clean the pearl oysters ('bat-wing' oysters in this case) and give them room to grow. It was dirty work, but fun, and it seems a pretty good lifestyle - most of the afternoon seemed devoted to fishing off the side of the pontoon, although no one caught anything worthwhile. Old Pete also took us out in the dinghy to see the rays, loggerhead turtles and sharks in the shallows, and 'Nicky' came up alongside to disrupt our fishing.

The highlight of our stay in Shark Bay, however, was on the last day...we caught a SHARK!!! Ed took us out on a shark fishing trip with the other Ocean Park volunteers, and despite it apparently being unheard of to catch a shark in late May (a fact we didn't know until after the trip...) and an enormous blowie taking the first 3 pieces of shark bait, we hooked a 2m-long female thickskin. So anyone who visits Ocean Park in the next little while, please say hello to "Sarah" - she's the biggest shark in the pond.

We were rather sad to leave Ocean Park, having gotten quite settled, but we were off to Steep Point - the western-most point on the Australian mainland. We were both very surprised that the 4WD track leading out there was in such good condition, and that the camp at the Point was heavily occupied (apparently you're meant to book several weeks in advance, which none of the 4 locals we spoke to about going thought to tell us!)...it probably didn't help that we were located next to the loudest group of fishermen on the beach, who sang along drunkenly to old classic rock and Aussie songs at top volume until 11pm. We got a bit lost trying to get to the Point itself, but it was worth it - we saw another 2m shark, turtles, huge schools of fish...and a (at least) 4m manta ray! Incredible!

After a quick detour via the Hamelin Pool stromatolites and shell quarry, it was on to Carnarvon. We didn't receive the best first impression, arriving on the Sunday morning of the Foundation Day long weekend - the town was just about dead. Despite it's location on the grey nomad route, Carnarvon's not a very 'touristy' town, but it's worth stopping in just to pick up some fresh fruit and veg...our mouths were watering just looking at the giant zucchinis and grapefruit! And the OTC Dish was quite cool - and it'll be heaps better if they do it up as an educational centre as is planned. But we headed up to Point Quobba (the blowholes) for the rest of the weekend - and discovered it's hidden gem, the lagoon. There were fish ranging from tiny turquoise ones and any number of stripeys and clownfish, through bright yellow boxfish, inquisitive pufferfish and orange butterfly fish, to spectacular parrotfish and huge cod. who needs the Great Barrier Reef or Ningaloo? And that doesn't include the pink, purple, blue, green and yellow corals, giant sea urchins, hermit and rock crabs or the 4 octopus - 2 of which were fighting/mating (we weren't sure which!). It's amazing to watch them change colour and blow themselves up to look bigger when you approach - it certainly scared me away!

I also caught our first fish big enough to eat at Miaboolya Beach - a 50cm mulloway! Malcolm had very kindly given us a useful little book entitled "How to Gut a Mess of Fish Without Making a Mess of the Fish". Unfortunately the first instruction the book gives is to use a good filleting knife - and we can attest to the fact that it's very difficult to properly fillet a fish with only a small, slightly blunt pocketknife to work with. But it was extremely tasty, and a nice change from our usual diet of vegetable and bean mush!

Unfortunately our LandRover seemed to have developed a slow leak in the cooling system, so we spent 4 hours chasing down different leads, and eventually found someone who could help us. Apart from fixing our car (touch wood), Steve's rather nicely phrased dislike of the complexity of LandRovers gave us a name for ours - we're pleased to introduce "Churchill's Revenge", or "Churchill" for short. So he joins the crew, which also includes "Dodo", the stick-on koala; "Burnie Franko (Frank) Mephisopheles III" aka "The Chaperone", our stuffed toy lobster; and "Terrence", the miniature LandRover Defender.

They're coming out with us to the Kennedy Ranges and Mt Augustus for a bit of an inland change. We'll see you on the other side!

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